Wind can be an awesome force of nature, just ask anyone who has been in a tornado or powerful hurricane. We can harness this wind for the use of generating electricity for our world. When the sun shines it heats the earth, but since the earth is made of different materials and is of differing heights and valleys it heats unevenly, especially over land and water.

Daytime is when the air above the land heats up more quickly, and it heats the air over water more slowly. Warm air that is above the land expands and rises, and cooler air quickly comes in to fill the gaps, and this creates wind. In the evening, the winds reverse, because air cools more quickly over land than over water. This is why you have the differing temperatures of land near bodies of water.

Today as we look for new ways to power the earth, it is a natural thing to look at wind power. It has been used for many years to power simple machines of the past. Wind is another type of renewable energy, which makes it a renewable energy source. In years past we used windmills, the wind machines of today are called turbines.

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In a time when energy dependency on foreign countries is straining domestic politics around the world, many countries are looking to offshore wind farms as a possibility. Great Britain and the United States are just two of those countries investing money and time into researching the option of using wind generated power to supplement their countries’ power consumption.

Offshore wind farms are literally farms of large wind turbines lined in rows much like an agricultural fruit or nut farm. The turbines are placed in relatively shallow water close to shore to minimize costs and allow a connection with land power lines to deliver the energy. Onshore wind generating power farms already populate rural plains in the United States. California has had wind farms for over 30 years. The power generated by wind is an addition to other sources of power, because wind on land is intermittent it is not ideal for complete power production.

Great Britain plans to have the country powered by wind energy by 2020. This would be possible in major part to the topography of the ocean floor surrounding Great Britain. The floor is shelved and shallow making the cost of installing turbines manageable. The ideal spot for an offshore wind farm in the United States would be Cape Cod. The pacific coast of the United States is steep and treacherous making onshore wind farms a better option.

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